On Saturday April 7th, after our look around Chartres Cathedral we drove to Mont St. Michel. I had heard nothing of this island until someone mentioned it on their blog as the "island castle" that Disney used as inspiration for their movie Tangled. I did a bit of research on the internet and fell in love with the idea of visiting this place. For over a thousand years pilgrims have flocked to this site. It was originally used as a secluded abbey for monks wanting to leave the world behind. Now 3.5 million tourists visit each year and wind their way up the one street on the island to the top of the hill and the abbey.
We got to the site around 5:00 PM and were not allowed to park close to the island because the tide was going to come in so we parked 2 miles away and walked the long causeway to the island. The boys were very excited to play on the mud flats while we watched the tide come in. This island has the most dangerous tide in Europe because it rises 50 feet in about an hour.
On our long walk to the island
The boys playing in the water as the tide rolled in. They went out to take a photo on this rock and within 10 minutes this rock was completely under water!
This picture was taken around 6 PM. This is the only road through the town and was basically deserted while we walked around. We saw a few people but we really had the place to ourselves. (Take note of this photo...you will see this same scene later)
Crepes with nutella for dinner? Yes please:)
Can you see the floating van? Some poor tourist didn't understand the many, many, many announcements warning that the tide was coming in and you needed to move your vehicles from the lower parking lots.
We headed to our hotel for the night, only about 5 miles down the road. We stayed in a beautiful bed and breakfast and it was the perfect location because we were close enough to visit the island once more the next morning.
Mont St. Michel the next morning. Can you see the wave of water rushing in with the tide?
The abbey at the top of the hill. Simply amazing and beautiful to walk around.
Easter Sunday service in the abbey of Mont St. Michel? Yes please:)
It wasn't hard to imagine robed monks walking these halls in silence.
A statue of St. Michel (Saint Michael)
OK, remember the picture from earlier showing just a few people wandering this street? Now look at it at 11:00 AM. It was so packed you seriously couldn't even stop to look in the store windows, you would get trampled. My advice, come early or late, miss the crowds and enjoy the quaint beauty of this island town.
After escaping the chaos of that crowd we got in our car and headed for the beaches of Normandy...but more on that in the next post:)
Awesome pictures! When we went, it was low tide and we could park in that lower lot. Crazy!!!
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